My name is Samantha D., I am writing from Alexander Graham Bell School on the north side of Chicago. One of our school initiatives this year was to promote green initiatives in our curricula and our community-based efforts. As such we re­searched like-minded organizations and were particularly inspired by your efforts.

While it may be easy to impress upon adults the issues of the world, children are often unsure of what they can do to help. In an effort to inspire them and show how they can make a difference, we held a “penny war” competition at our school.

Each grade competed against each other by filling their jug with pennies. They then “at­tacked” other grades with silver coins and dollars to negate their penny earnings. The battle was fierce, and we are proud of the camaraderie that surfaced. After five days of “battle” (and a LOT of coin counting) we raised over $1900. We would like to give you this money to support your cause of helping people the world over have better access to clean water.